This application claims the priority of German Application 199 08 103.4, filed Feb. 25, 1999, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to an opening system for a movable vehicle body part of a motor vehicle having a lock which is arranged on an inner shell of the vehicle body part and can be operated by an outside handle arrangement which is fixed to an outer shell of the vehicle body part.
Such an opening system is generally known for a side door of a motor vehicle. The known motor vehicle door has an inner door shell as well as an outer door shell which are connected with one another. On a rearward frontal area of the inner door shell, a door lock is arranged which interacts with a lock shackle on the assigned door frame of the motor vehicle. The door lock can be operated from the outside by an outside handle arrangement which has a pull-type door handle, the door handle being connected with the door lock by way of a corresponding lever mechanism. The outside handle arrangement is fixed to the outer door shell. On the interior side of the outer door shell, the outside handle arrangement has a bearing part in the form of a bearing bracket which is fixed on the interior side of the outer door shell and which is disposed on the door handle arranged on the exterior side. In the event of a side impact onto the motor vehicle and onto the corresponding side door, the outer skin in the area of the outside handle arrangement may be deformed such that the lever mechanism for operating the door lock is necessarily moved, whereby an undesirable opening of the side door is caused in the event of the side impact.
It is an object of the invention to provide an opening system of the initially mentioned type which avoids an unintentional opening of the vehicle body part in the event of an impact load onto the vehicle body part.
This object is achieved in that, at the level of the outside handle arrangement on a side of the inner shell of the vehicle body part facing the outside handle arrangement, a deformation-resistant supporting block is provided which projects toward the outside handle arrangement. As the result of the providing of the deformation-resistant supporting block on the inner shell of the vehicle body part, the outer shell is deformed by a reduced amount in the area of the outside handle arrangement, since the outside handle arrangement strikes against the supporting block after a short deformation path. The deformation path, which the outside handle arrangement can cover relative to the supporting block, is advantageously of an amount which corresponds approximately to the necessary distance in the non-deformed state between the supporting block and the outside handle arrangement in order not to impair the lifting and lowering movement of a movable window of the vehicle body part. The solution according to the invention is therefore suitable particularly for motor vehicle side doors. The maximally possible deforming path for the outside handle arrangement must be selected such that the coupled lever mechanism for operating the door lock is moved only so far by the corresponding deforming movement that the door lock is not yet triggered.
As a further development of certain preferred embodiments of the invention, a bearing part of the outside handle arrangement arranged on the interior side on the outer shell is provided with a supporting element which interacts in the event of a collision with the supporting block. As the result, the maximal deformation path in the event of a corresponding impact load between the outside handle arrangement and the supporting block is reduced further because the supporting element projects toward the supporting block.
As a further development of certain preferred embodiments of the invention, the supporting block has a front-side stop face which extends diagonally downward and inward such that, in the event of a collision onto the bearing part of the outside handle arrangement and thus onto the outer shell, a movement component is exercised in the downward direction. This further development is based on the recognition that, in the event of an intrusion of the outer shell caused by a collision, the outer shell, in addition to the component caused in the collision direction, will move upward, which, in addition, may cause a triggering of the lock. Because of the described further development, the supporting block has a downwardly tilting-away angular position which generates a force and displacement component onto the outside handle arrangement in the downward direction.
As a further development of certain preferred embodiments of the invention, the stop face of the supporting block is bounded in the vertical direction of the vehicle upward by a deflecting edge which projects to the outer shell. This prevents that the section of the outside handle arrangement which comes in contact with the stop face unintentionally slides off in the upward direction.
As a further development of certain preferred embodiments of the invention, the stop face of the supporting block, on the one hand, and a face of the supporting element, on the other hand, are provided such with corresponding profilings that, in the event of a collision, the profilings form-lockingly mesh with one another. As a result, it is reliably avoided that, even in the event of high impact loads and considerable intrusions of the outer shell, the outside handle arrangement itself is displaced correspondingly extensively.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.